Graphene has been anticipated for revolutionizing a wide range of technological areas due to its multiple remarkable physical and chemical properties. However, pristine graphene or chemically converted graphene sheets, with extended π-conjugation in the basal plane, are prone to restack with each other via π-π stacking interaction and van der Waals force to form irreversible agglomerates, resulting in a significant deterioration of their properties including severely reduced specific surface area and much lower mass diffusion rate. In addition, the restacking of graphene sheets usually yields graphite-like powders, which involves additional processing procedures or inclusion of passive additives (e.g., binders for electrochemistry applications) to fabricate the ultimate products, which can further degrade the overall performance. Free-standing monolithic graphene materials with the properties of individual graphene sheets well maintained are highly desired but a great challenge for many applications of graphene, especially for electrochemical energy storage and conversion devices. To effectively exploit the unusual attributes of graphene for many proposed applications, there are at least two major prerequisites. One is the availability of solution processable graphene and its chemical derivatives in large quantities. The other is to mitigate against the re-stacking induced property deterioration when the graphene sheets are processed into bulk materials.
It is against this background that a need arose to develop the embodiments described herein.